Life

Reminder: You Will Be Able To Stream Tonight’s Jets-Bills Game Live On Twitter

#Morning Brew
by Last Updated

“[Bill Gross has a] sad obsession with attacking his former employer and colleagues” — Pacific Investment Management’s lawyers, responding to bond investor Bill Gross’ breach of contract lawsuit against the firm. It looks like there’s a bit of bad sportsmanship coming from both ends.

Market Snapshot

  • U.S. markets closed lower on Wednesday despite a strong start, no significant negative news and positive oil inventory data. Beats us!
  • Apple stock has been on a tear lately, jumping 10% in the last three days,boosted by solid iPhone 7 pre-order numbers and rival Samsung’s Note 7 recall

Twitter is Live

…And waiting for the users to come pouring in. Yesterday, Twitter’s latest play to boost user growth hit the Twittersphere: an all-new video app will be released for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Xbox One. Users will be able to freely access live streams from NFL Thursday night games, MLB matchups and the NBA. Oh, and users can also simultaneously view curated Periscope feeds and Vines (both Twitter-owned services, we might add) at each event, all for free—not even a Twitter or pay-TV account is required to tune in. Twitter dropped $10 million for ten Thursday NFL games alone, but will this big play result in more users for the struggling social media company? Stay tuned.

Only in Pittsburgh

…Uber goes no hands. Beginning yesterday, Uber users in the Pittsburgh area were invited to test out self-driving cars in select neighborhoods. The ride experience seeks to inform and involve passengers along the way using an iPad info tablet in the back (bonus: riders can even take selfies with it). Once the autonomous cars roll out nationwide, Uber stands to substantially reduce the number of auto fatalities, but that’s not all: by maximizing the efficiency—and safety—of its product, Uber is also vocal about its goal of eliminating the liability of human drivers. After all, you don’t have to screen or interview robots.

Turner Completes its Collection

…And puts the popcorn in the microwave. Turner Classic Movies just closed a domestic licensing deal with The Walt Disney Studios for on-demand rights to tenStar Wars movies. Yes, ten. Let’s break it out: the collection includes five of the six previous Star Wars films, last year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this year’sRogue One: A Star Wars Story and the three movies that have yet to be released, not to mention the rights to the original Star Wars: A New Hope from a separate deal with 20th Century Fox. This makes Turner the only cable company with rights to all 11 Star Wars films. Nicely done. Estimates place the ten-title deal in the $200 million price range. So is it marathon-time? Yes: Turner’s six-night Star Wars marathon starts September 20—see you there.

Bayer and Monsanto

…The great beast awakens. In a massive $56 billion deal, German chemical maker Bayer has purchased Missouri-based agrochemical pioneer, Monsanto. Let’s rewind: for nearly five months, these two major agricultural players have been negotiating the terms of a monster merger in an effort to combat lower farm profit margins. What started as a $62 billion bid for Monsanto on May 10 has evolved into a $128-a-share (Monsanto shares, that is) deal that includes a $2 billion breakup fee should the merger fail. Not to jinx it or anything, but deals over $10 billion the past few years have a 30% fail rate, and this one is sure to face heavy regulatory scrutiny. Knock on wood.

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Economic Calendar

College Kids Can’t Hang

This of course doesn’t apply to our loyal Brewers in college, but new data is showing that educated American youngsters are far from global citizens. According to a new survey from the Council on Foreign Relations, college students have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to learning about world affairs—perhaps they should read the Brew? That’s enough self-promotion for one day:

  • The survey consisted of a global literacy test administered to people aged 18-26 who were educated at an American college or university. The average score on the test was only 55% and just over 1% earned an A. Ouch.
  • Only 30% of the respondents knew that the legislative branch of the U.S. government has the constitutional power to declare war. Possible explanation for this ignorance: Congress hasn’t declared war since 1942. We’ll let that one slide.
  • 34% answered correctly that more Mexicans have left the U.S. than entered the country in the last five years (bet you didn’t know that one). Less than 50% knew that Mandarin Chinese is the most popular primary language in the world. Come on, people.
  • Perhaps there’s hope after all: 72% of respondents said that topics like world events and foreign cultures are becoming more important to them. Phew.

Interview Question of the Day

Monique is 24 years old. She is twice the age that Valerie was when Monique was the same age that Valerie is now. How old is Valerie? (Answer)

Startup of the Day

Zume Pizza — The Silicon Valley-based pizza startup is taking a very Silicon Valley approach to pizza making. You guessed it, robots. Zume’s pizza kitchen uses robots to add sauce, spread it on the dough and place the pizza in an oven. Soon, the robots will also be able to prepare the dough, remove the pizza from the oven, add toppings and box the pizza. No ETA on when the robots will pour you a nice glass of wine and give you a foot massage after a long day at work. Hopefully soon.

Food for Thought

Tough times to be the Oracle of Omaha: Warren Buffett has fallen from the third-richest person in the world to fourth-richest. The reason: his nearly 10% stake in Wells Fargo has taken a 7% hit since the bank’s sales scandal broke last week. We hope Buffett’s ego isn’t too bruised.